powerlifting

I thought I’d let everyone know what I’m doing for my training over the next month. Initially I planned on moving straight into another 16 weeks of the Jugg Method but I found out yesterday the gym I train at is going to have a push/pull meet on January 7th. Since I left a lot on the platform during my deadlift at the last competition I’m going do the push/pull meet and skip the push portion. My right wrist has been bothering me the last month or two and the last week and a half has been the worst of it so far. I think it’s a combo of some tendonitis and an imbalance between flexor/extensor sleep in my wrist. To take care of this I’m doing a “No Push December”. I’m cutting out all pressing to give my wrists a break and bring my back size and strength up to par. Here is what my training template is looking like for the next 5 weeks.

The squat and deadlift I have planned numbers I’m going to use but the Monday and Thursday workouts will be more by feel. I’m aiming for a 460# deadlift in January so I have to work on what I suck at. Namely that’s lower body and posterior chain strength so I’m going to hit those like a madman. I’ll let you know in January how it went.

The competition is coming up fast and I’m excited to see how this short training cycle and the Jugg Method I used over the summer will bring up my total. I don’t have any plans right now as to what my openers or anything will be but all my lifts are definitely up. After the meet is over I might post up the training cycle I’m using to peak for the meet. At the last meet I lifted in the 220 weight class (weighed in at 215) but I’m going to try and get down to the 181 weight class. I’m setting at 198 as of this morning as I still have plenty of fat to lose. Here is how my training and diet are currently set up.

I’ll add more cardio I go. The Recovery/Restoration could be anything from sled dragging, body weight training, or just some more cardio and stretching. I’m training the hell out of my abs and lower back both around my cardio as well as during my training sessions since that’s a major weakness for me.

Diet:
I’m using a Modified Warrior Diet along with some Creatine Monohydrate. I’ll only train in the mornings if I have to and if that does happen I’ll backload 99% of my carbs so that I don’t wreck my hormone levels during the day.

I finished the Chad W. Smiths Juggernaut Method program last week so I thought I’d give a review.

My first impression was that it was very similar to Wendlers 5/3/1, which he openly states that Wendler is where he got a portion of his ideas, and I was little skeptical to be honest. Long story short though is that it’s a solid program. The first two waves are pretty high volume and very challenging. I was worried about my 1RM but the extra volume did nothing but help. I was feeling good this last week so instead of going for rep maxes I went ahead and tested out some singles on squat, bench, and deadlift. Military press I stuck with a rep max.

Both of these were about a 8-9/10 effort. Add some adrenaline, a belt for bench, and some knee wraps for the squat and I think I’ll have some great improvements at the meet.

I was a little beat up by Friday so I only went up to 385 for a single. It felt heavy and slow but my training partner said it looked like I pulled it easy which tells me I have way more in the tank. I’m going to continue training for the next two weeks instead of taking a deload week. My wife and I are going out of town for a week at the end of September/beginning of October and I probably won’t be lifting when we’re gone. I’m working on my new training cycle to get ready for my meet in November.

Used just a touch of leg drive on my last 5 sets of military press. Kept my feet flat on the floor but got a little knee drive. Progressed in either weight or reps on all my other exercises too so I’m happy. Looking forward to some squats later today!

Good day. I’m day 1 of going caffeine free for a bit in order to get my fat loss back on track. I realized that I’ve become a little to dependent on my coffee and other stims throughout the day and I don’t like it. Aside from just the general drag that I’ve had my fat loss has ground to screeching halt. I’m pretty sure that my adrenals are really sensitive stims so I’m knocking them out for awhile. I’ll still have a little decaf coffee every now and then but in general my only “caffeine” source will be some green tea that’s not brewed very strong. I have a video of my last two sets on bench that I’ll get posted up later.

I’m going to be working the hip thrusts and try to get damn strong at those. It was a great glute/hamstring exercise that put zero pressure on my lower back. Didn’t get any video but I’ll try to get some benching and deadlifting later this week. Off to the gym for some sled dragging and cardio!